The bodies of 19 members of an elite firefighting crew who perished as a ferocious blaze ravaged forests in Arizona on Sunday have been retrieved from the mountain where they died.

As the bodies of the Granite Mountain Hotshots were recovered, it emerged that the team's 20th member survived as he was moving the crew's truck when the flames overcame his comrades.

Helicopters had been unable to reach the highly-trained men as they fought the flames in Yarnell and they could not be saved by their emergency shelters - tent-like structures meant to shield them from flames
and heat.

When they were found on Sunday, all 19 shelters were deployed but some of the men's bodies were inside their individual shelters, while others were outside - indicating just how suddenly they were overcome by the flames.

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Loss: Kevin Woyjeck, left, and Wade Parker, right, were among the firefighters who lost their lives on Sunday as they tried to battle a massive wildfire in Yarnell Hill, Arizona

Wade Parker (left) followed his father Captain Danny Parker (right) of
the Chino Valley Fire District to become a Hot Shot and was in his first
year when he died

Loved: The bodies of Wade Parker, 22, left, and 21-year-old Woyjeck, right, were retrieved on Monday

Heroes: A group photograph shows members of the Prescott Granite Mountain Hotshots

'It had to be a perfect storm in order
for this to happen,' Prescott Fire Department spokesman Wade Ward told the Today show. 'Their situational awareness and their training was
at such a high level that it's unimaginable that this has even happened.'

Among
the victims is Billy Warneke, a Marine Corps veteran who served a tour
in Iraq and who was expecting his first child with his wife Roxanne this
December, family toldThe Press Enterprise. The 25-year-old had joined the fire department just three months ago.

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Also killed was Kevin Woyjeck, who followed in the footsteps of his father, a fire
captain with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

His grandmother told theLong Beach Press Telegram that Kevin, originally from Seal Beach, California, had been a firefighter for around four years.

Another
firefighter's son lost his life; Capt. Michael MacKenzie, who was once
the captain of Moreno Valley, California, said his son Chris died in the
flames. Chris MacKenzie joined the Forest Service in 2004 and had been
in the Prescott Fire Department for two years.

Tragic: Chris Mackenzie (right) also died in the inferno on June 30. He had followed in the footsteps of his father, Mike MacKenzie (left), who was once the fire captain of Moreno Valley, California

Tragedy: Mackenzie, pictured left and right, died as the men tried to climb into emergency shelters

Killed: Travis Turbyfill, pictured with his family, also died with his team on the mountainside

Fallen: Scott Norris, pictured, was one of the 19 victims

Missed: She had been married to Andrew Ashcraft, pictured, for seven years and they have four children

Heartbroken: Juliann Ashcraft, cries alongside her father Tom Ashcraft outside of the Granite Mountain Hotshot fire station in Prescott on Monday July 1

Struggle: Juliann Ashcraft, left, will only get a one-off payment of $328,000 and workers' compensation

Disbelief: David Turbyfill is comforted by his wife Shari as he mourns his son Travis Turbyfill on Monday

Other
firefighters who have been identified include the Hotshots
superintendent Eric Marsh, 22-year-old Wade Parker and father-of-four Andrew
Ashcraft.

Ashcraft's widow, Juliann, was seen sobbing by a makeshift
memorial in Prescott for the fallen firefighters. She said she
learned of his death while watching the news with their four children.

Somber: A procession carrying the bodies of the firefighters heads to the medical examiner's office

'They died heroes,' she told azcentral.com as she wept. 'And we'll miss them. We love them.'

The tragedy is the deadliest single
incident for firefighters since the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks, where as many as 340 crew members lost their lives, officials
said. It is also the deadliest wildland blaze for firefighters in the
U.S.
for 80 years.

'Our entire crew was lost,' Prescott
Fire Chief Dan Fraijo told reporters. 'We just lost 19 of some of the
finest people you'll ever meet. Right now, we're in crisis.'

President Obama
called the firefighters heroes and highly skilled professionals who 'put
themselves in harm's way to protect the lives and property of fellow
citizens they would never meet.'

The highly-skilled team was overtaken by a
fast-moving blaze stoked by hot winds on Sunday.

The fire was sparked by a lightning strike on Friday and spread to at least 8,400 acres amid triple-digit temperatures, low humidity and
windy conditions.

The fire has also destroyed an estimated 200 homes, Morrison said. Dry grass
near the communities of Yarnell and Glen Isla fed the fast-moving
blaze.

It continues to burn, with flames lighting up the night sky in the forest above
Yarnell, a town of about 700 residents about 85 miles northwest of
Phoenix. The area has not suffered a fire in 40 years.

It
was unclear exactly how the crew became trapped. Southwest incident
team leader Clay Templin said the team and its commanders were following
safety protocols, but it appears the fire's erratic nature simply
overwhelmed them.

Highly trained: Members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots (pictured last year) had been fighting wildfire in New Mexico and elsewhere in Arizona

Flames: Fire crews can be seen as a wildfire burns homes in the Glenn Ilah area near Yarnell, Arizona Sunday

Tragedy: Winds from a thunderstorm fanned the flames toward the tragic 19 hotshots, but fire chiefs did not pull out their men in time

Destroyed: The report said that by keeping crews on the mountain they were prioritizing the safety of property before the lives of its firefighters

TOUGH BUT KIND: WHO ARE THE GRANITE MOUNTAIN HOTSHOTS?

Eighteen of the 19 firefighters who lost their lives were part of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, an elite firefighting team from Prescott, Arizona.

To join, candidates must complete a boot camp-style test to prove they are in peak physical condition. They have to run 1.5 miles in 10 minutes and 35 seconds, complete 40 sit-ups in 60 seconds, 25 push-ups in 60 seconds, and seven pull-ups.

'Problem solving, teamwork, ability to make decisions in a stressful environment and being nice are the attributes of our crewmembers,' its website read.

After a fire breaks out, they hike for miles into the wilderness with chain saws and backpacks filled with heavy gear to build lines of protection between people and the blaze. They remove brush, trees and anything that might burn in the direction of homes and cities.

The crew had battled fires in New Mexico and Arizona in recent weeks. The team, which was formed in 2002, is part of the Prescott Fire Department, the oldest in the state. The deaths mean that Prescott has lost a staggering 20 per cent of its department.

Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said that the 19 firefighters were a part of the city's fire department. With their deaths, the department lost 20 per cent of its members.

'We
grieve for the family. We grieve for the department. We grieve for the
city,' he said at a news conference Sunday evening. 'We're devastated.
We just lost 19 of the finest people you'll ever meet.'

Hot shot crews are elite firefighters
who often hike for miles into the wilderness with chain saws and
backpacks filled with heavy gear to build lines of protection between
people and fires.

They remove brush, trees and anything that might burn
in the direction of homes and cities.

The crew killed in the blaze had worked on other wildfires in recent weeks in New Mexico and Arizona, Fraijo said.

'By the time they got there, it was moving very quickly,' he said.

He added that the firefighters had to deploy the emergency shelters when 'something drastic' occurred.

'One of the last fail safe methods
that a firefighter can do under those conditions is literally to dig as
much as they can down and cover themselves with a protective - kinda
looks like a foil type - fire-resistant material - with the desire, the
hope at least, is that the fire will burn over the top of them and they
can survive it,' Fraijo said.

'Under certain conditions there's
usually only sometimes a 50 per cent chance that they survive,' he said.
'It's an extreme measure that's taken under the absolute worst
conditions.'

Overwhelmed: Local resident Bob Hoskovec says a prayer as he kneels outside the gate on Monday

Mourning: Toby Schultz pauses after laying flowers at the gate of the Granite Mountain Hot Shot Crew fire station in Prescott, Arizona on Monday morning. Nearly the whole teams was wiped out by the fire

Devastated: Nancy Myers speaks to her boss to let him know that she won't be able to make it into work

Tears: A group of girls cry after placing flowers at a make-shift memorial outside the Prescott fire station

The 19 firefighters died as they battled the flames in Yarnell, Arizona

Nineteen
shelters were deployed and some of the firefighters were found inside
them, Mike Reichling from the Arizona State Forestry Division told the
Arizona Republic. Others were found outside them.

The National Fire Protection
Association had previously listed the deadliest wildland fire involving
firefighters as the 1994 Storm King Fire near Glenwood Springs, Colorado,
which killed 14 firefighters who were overtaken by a sudden explosion of
flames.

U.S. wildfire disasters date back more
than two centuries and include tragedies like the 1949 Mann Gulch fire
near Helena, Montana, that killed 13, or the Rattlesnake blaze four years
later that claimed 15 firefighters in Southern California.

'This is as dark a day as I can
remember,' Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement.

'It may be days or
longer before an investigation reveals how this tragedy occurred, but
the essence we already know in our hearts: fighting fires is dangerous
work.'

Engulfed: 19 firefighters died as the wildfire spread near the Arizona town of Yarnell

Evacuation: Hundreds of residents were forced to flee their homes

Death toll: The Yarnell wildfire is the deadliest wildfire involving firefighters in the U.S. for at least 30 years

KILLED WHILE PROTECTING THEIR COUNTRY: DEADLIEST U.S. FIRES

Ahead of this devastating Arizona blaze, the
National Fire Protection Association listed the deadliest wildland fire
involving firefighters as the 1994 Storm King Fire near Glenwood
Springs, Colorado. Fourteen firefighters were killed by a sudden explosion of flames.

The
association lists the last wildland fire to kill more firefighters as
the 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles, which killed 29.

The
most firefighters - 340 - killed in a blaze not confined to wildlands
lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Other
tragedies have included the 1949 Mann Gulch fire near Helena, Montana
that killed 13, or the Rattlesnake blaze that claimed 15 lives in
Southern California four years later.

Brewer said she would travel to the area on Monday.

Two hundred firefighters were working
on the fire Sunday, but several hundred more were expected to arrive
Monday when a new fire management team takes over.

The fire has forced the closure of parts of state Route 89. It was zero per cent contained late Sunday.

The Red Cross has opened two shelters in the area - at Yavapai College in Prescott and at the Wickenburg High School gym.

Prescott, which is more than 30 miles
northeast of Yarnell, is one of the only cities in the United States
that has a hot shot fire crew, Fraijo said.

The unit was established in
2002, and the city also has 75 suppression team members.

Chuck Overmyer and his wife, Ninabill, said they lost their, 1,800-square-foot home in the blaze.

They were helping friends flee when
the blaze switched directions and moved toward his property.

Elite team: A photo from April 12, 2012 shows a squad leader with the Granite Mountain Hotshots training crew members on setting up emergency fire shelters outside of Prescott, Arizona

Last hope: The firefighters deployed the emergency shelters on Sunday but died (picture from April 2012)

Emergency shelter: Firefighters dig into the earth and lay in the shelters, hoping the fire will pass over them

At work: Members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots are pictured working in New Mexico last year

Experts: Members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots work on a ridge line in Mogollon, New Mexico last June

They loaded
up what belongings they could, including three dogs and a 1930 model
hot rod on a trailer. As he looked out his rear view mirror he could see
embers on the roof of his garage.

'We knew it was gone,' he said.

He later gathered at the Arrowhead Bar
and Grill in nearby Congress along with locals and watched on TV as he
saw the fire destroy his house.

'That was when we knew it was really gone,' he said.

He later fielded a phone call from a friend in which he said, 'Lost it all, man. Yep, it's all gone.'

Morrison said the fire grew in intensity when winds began gusting at up to 24mph in the late afternoon. 'You get some winds, and it can take off on you,' he said.

Dangerous: Firefighters spray water on a restaurant to help protect it from flames in the Glenn Ilah area

Fast-moving: The fire started with a lightning strike on Friday and spread to 2,000 acres on Sunday

Aid: The Red Cross has set up a shelter at the Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona

Escape: Homeowners packed up any belongings they could as they fled the wildfire

Backup: 200 firefighters and four planes are battling the blaze with 130 more firefighters on their way